US Immigration News

A recent report from the National Foundation for American Policy, a pro-immigration think tank based in Arlington, Virginia, has found that the US immigration system is putting obstacles in the way of foreign medical professionals who want to work in the US. This, the report says, is unwise because the US population is ageing and has an increasing need for medical services. The report recommends reforms to the system that would make it easier for foreign health professionals to work in the US.

Speaking in a TV interview on Wednesday 30th January 2013, President Obama said that he expects comprehensive immigration reform legislation to be passed by the US Congress within the next six months. The President told Spanish language TV station Telemundo that he expected the legislation to be passed by the end of 2013 but said he would make every effort to ensure that it passed quicker. 'I can guarantee that I will put everything behind it' he said.

The White House has announced that President Obama will be holding a series of meetings on Tuesday 12th February 2013 in support of his campaign to reform the US's immigration system.

President Barack Obama gave a speech in Las Vegas on Tuesday, 29th January 2013, in which he told Americans that the time has come for the US to reform its immigration system.

The President's speech was light on detail but he laid out the principles that will underlie his immigration reform proposals while speaking at Del Sol High School. In the hall were a collection of national and local politicians, many of them of Hispanic descent.

A bipartisan group of eight senior Senators has announced that they have drawn up a framework agreement for US immigration reform legislation. The Senators made their announcement on Monday 28th January 2013. The group includes the 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Senator for Arizona and Lindsay Graham from North Carolina, another long-standing Republican advocate of immigration reform. The legislation will almost certainly be passed by the Senate when it votes on the bill later this year. However, this does not mean that the legislation will become law in the US.

Four senators, two Republicans and two Democrats, have come together to sponsor a new bill in the Senate that could, if it became law, see the US grant 300,000 H-1B visas a year. It would also see a rise in the number of employment based green cards granted to foreign graduates from US universities and allow the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work.